First trial in humans of “minicells”: a completely new way of delivering anti-cancer drugs

A completely new way of delivering anti-cancer drugs to tumours, using “minicells” derived from bacteria, has been tested for the first time in humans and found to be safe, well-tolerated and even induced stable disease in patients with advanced, incurable cancers with no treatment options remaining.

The research, which is presented at the 24th EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Dublin, Ireland, today, suggests that it could be possible to use this new technology for targeted delivery of other drugs to a range of cancers, and to personalise treatment by adjusting the drugs to suit the genetic make-up of each patient’s tumour.